People love to hate Pearl Davis. Like Nara Smith and Hilaria Baldwin, Pearl attracts no end of ire on the internet but for different reasons. The first time I happened upon her, Pearl initially appeared to be an independent, athletic, outspoken young woman in a modest but tasteful turtleneck. She may have even had some pearls on, I don’t recall, but wouldn’t that be a nice signature touch?
JustPearlyThings, the Hated Modern Woman
A volleyball player in her late 20s, her online persona is JustPearlyThings, and she hosts a chatty talk show in London, England, of all places (though she is American). Called “The Pregame,” the show is presented as a debate between random guests about relations between the sexes, marriage, questions of career, and childbearing. Less a venue for longform debate and more of a soundstage for viral clips and soundbites, “The Pregame” features Pearl spouting “based” talking points and opining on society writ large.
Far from the image of the buttoned-up athlete I initially encountered, Pearl appears on her own show in skimpy dresses that look like nighties, no makeup, hair a jumble. This is bizarre mostly because of her continual, scathing remarks about how “modern women” don’t pay attention to their physical appearance. And, according to Pearl, this slovenliness is proof of how terrible, out-of-touch and ungrateful the “modern woman” is.
“Traditional” vs. “Red Pill”
She presents herself as an advocate for vaguely “traditional” values (There’s that word again!), but her tagline is that “marriage is a bad deal for men.” Couched exclusively in material terms, Pearl describes marriage as a financial transaction and views romantic interactions in terms of power dynamics. It’s so dreary!
The “red pill” terminology is also simply mind-numbing. Lust is described as wanting “to smash” someone. Girls with a “high body count” have been “run through,” and “high value men” can supposedly do whatever they want with impunity. There’s a dismal sense of poetry about it, but what a relief to realize these terms do not reflect reality in a coherent way and you can choose simply to ignore them.
Poor Pearl, though, seems not to realize this, and seems to spend her time in these mind-forged manacles of self-loathing. You see, in purely material terms (the only terms in her arsenal), Pearl is a “modern woman.” Unmarried and unmarriagable, uncomfortable with her weight, shamelessly flirting with a pack of men, and picking catty fights with loose women who have long fingernails.
How Did She Get Here?
Pearl, whose first name is Hannah, comes from an interesting, stable, and successful family in the Midwest. If I recall correctly from a charming group show she did with her large family (which appears since to have moved or disappeared), her parents met when they were fairly young and had a child before marriage. They chose to place the child in an adoptive family and never told their other children until going to meet him as an adult. That is not your average family of origin.
Pearl describes her family as large, and, if I recall, there were a lot of siblings, to which the parents added one or two teenagers who were friends of their children without stable homes. They seemed to have a sprawling rural home and land. Pearl and her siblings were raised Catholic, a worldview that informs aspects of her “red pill” thinking but clearly did not offer arguments of substance. The parents provided for all this through a well-timed software business. In other words, these are interesting people!
On the show, her parents had wisdom to offer about the value of work, the gift of health (which all the money in the world cannot necessarily buy you), and the principles with which they raised their children. Pearl’s mother has apparently been involved through the different stages of the software business and has taken on her own entrepreneurial ventures. Having been married for more than 25 years and raised something in the order of 8 children, Pearl’s mother is “a compleat woman.” Her daughter is not on track to be the same.
There’s rampant speculation that her father bankrolls her online platform, perhaps purchasing subscribers to make hers one of the fastest-growing YouTube channels for a time. It is hard to imagine that there are really that many divorced men and so-called involuntary celibates to populate the bleachers of her online display. But, then again, all the women watching to confirm over and over how much they dislike her could probably fill a lot of seats. Like so many reactionaries, Pearl makes the mistake of thinking that every criticism of her ideology is further proof of her righteousness.
Awkwardly Out-of-touch
It seems conservative commentators have made the same mistake. Or, in any event, so very many people were talking about Pearl that she could not be ignored and made the rounds on the shows of conservative commentators. The results were strange. It seemed that having spent so much time complaining bitterly about the scourge of the modern woman, she has forgotten that there are women who are not these monstrous beasts. Drawn in by the plight of unhappily divorced men, Pearl seems to have forgotten that our selection of spouses says about as much about us as it does about them.
Despite my penchant for giving an absurd amount of advice, I am opposed to the general practice. Individual people are best equipped to solve their own problems. Inconsistencies are unavoidable in this earthly life, it seems. However, it’s especially comical when someone gives advice on a feat she herself has not accomplished. In this case, Pearl has seemingly not even come close to a marriage relationship built on timeless principles of interdependence, self-sacrifice, and trust.
This became apparent in an awkward exchange she had with conservative commentator Michael Knowles. When she asserted as a fact that babies should be tested for paternity at birth, she was met with bewildered incredulity. She seems unaware of the fact that anyone in a moderately stable relationship experiences intense wonder, awe, and bonding in the experience of birth. The thought of a paternity test at that time would only occur to a low-class and vicious cad. But, then again, that seems to be whom Pearl chooses to spend her time with.
What’s next for Pearl?
If Pearl wants to be happy, she should quit the internet. It’s what her husband would want for her. She should stop fixating on the shortcomings of the “modern woman.” The ideas we dwell on grow into us and become the substance of who we are. If we want to be people whose lives are worth living, our focus must be positive.
You get paid less for keeping your private life private, but there are things in life that are, in the final estimation, priceless.
